This past weekend Zach and I hit two sales in nearby Grosse Pointe. Normally, sales in this area are overpriced but, since it was Sunday, we figured we could find some deals. The first sale was actually supposed to be in the Boston Edison neighborhood of Detroit, but the address said it was in Grosse Pointe. This was really confusing. I LOVE going to sales in Boston Edison because all of the houses look like this:
I know what you’re thinking…THAT’S IN DETROIT?! Yes, yes it is. I filmed a “behind the scenes” making of a music video for a band in one of these houses once. You can see it here if you’re curious about how baller these places are.
So basically, I was so excited to go to this sale because even if we didn’t find anything to buy, at least we got to scope out a cool mansion. Turns out though that the company running this sale had simply removed items from one of these houses and stuck them all in a retail space in Grosse Pointe (hence the address confusion). UGH.
Things were kind of thrown around and it was pretty cramped. This girl was sitting on the floor right in one of the walkways sorting through tangled jewelry. Since it was hard to move and because things were scattered everywhere, I kind of gave up looking. We were about to leave when I noticed a box of old horse ribbons on the ground.
I love old horse ribbons because they are colorful and pretty. I had a gut feeling that people must buy these and so I consulted ebay. Sure enough, they do sell. I bought the whole box for $12. Did you know that there are all sorts of horse ribbon crafts you can make? Indeed there are!
Here is a whole entry about these old ribbons from fellow antique blogger Mitzy from Mitzy’s Miscellany. The best ribbon in my box was this super huge one:
After leaving this place, we hit one more sale nearby. The house was gorgeous and they were selling mostly furniture. There were some smaller items though, except that everything was priced extravagantly.
Even tiny decorative boxes were marked $50-$75 each. Usually we see them for $5-$10. Zach found this little plate he liked but it had two price stickers on the bottom. One said $25 and another said $2. I went to ask which price was correct, although I was SURE they would say the $25 one.
Lo and behold, the guy told me that this was only $2! I realized then that maybe these people running the sale were willing to wheel and deal. They did have a lot of stuff left in the house, and it was all mega overpriced.
Zach bought this old print for $10 and then I found this weird old plaque. I wasn’t really sure what it was from, but I loved the look of it. Give me some old metal and wood and I’m sold.
I thought this would be great on a wall in our house. I also thought it might be equestrian-related (I must have been on my horse kick from earlier), but after some googling, it turns out to be from a church mission group in the 1950s. Here’s the thing though…this was priced TWO HUNDRED DOLLARS. I know right?! That is insane.
I carried the plaque around for awhile and then got the courage to ask one of the workers about the price. I was totally honest with him and said how much I loved the plaque, but that it was way too high for me. I then asked him outright if they were trying to get rid of stuff or if the homeowner would rather keep what was left over. He said that the owner was an interior decorator and would probably just keep everything.
He then told me that he could go $75 on the plaque. I told him I didn’t want to be disrespectful, but that I could only be in on it for $25. He gave me a pretty resounding “NO” but I could tell that the wheels were turning in his head. I held onto the plaque and waited a few seconds until he said, “Ok ok, how’s $30?” I took the deal. I think this guy realized that he could get his commission on $30 or on $0 and he chose the former.
Driving home, I noticed that the little medallions on this plaque are stamped “SILVER” really tiny. I don’t know much about scraping metals, but maybe that is why the thing was priced so high? And maybe now I should scrap it instead of hanging it on my wall! If someone is an expert on this, let me know. My only experience with scrapping was that time I bought a Muffy doll accidentally wearing a real gold chain.
-Erin